Ghana’s education not colonial – Aheto-Tsegah

daniel russell

July 22, 2015 1:37 PM

The President of the Innovative Teachers, Stephen Desu, on Citi FM’s The Big Issue criticized Ghana’s educational system saying, the academic structure and curriculum used by basic schools were colonial.

Charles Aheto-Tsegah

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has dismissed assertions that Ghana’s education system is still using colonial structures.

The President of the Innovative Teachers, Stephen Desu, on Citi FM’s The Big Issue over the weekend criticized Ghana’s educational system saying, the academic structure and curriculum used by basic schools were colonial.

“This educational system is colonial in nature. We have not taken any steps at decolonizing our educational system,” he said, adding that, although a few modifications have been made, “it is still in the colonial mode.”

Mr. Desu opined that “we do not have education going on in Ghana right now. You just pass through the system, write examination, get a piece of paper and go and stand on the streets and sell pure water.”

But reacting these claims, the Executive Director of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Charles Aheto-Tsegah insisted that the curriculum used at the basic level satisfies the requirements of modern basic education.

“I do not see where the basis is for the description ‘colonial’. It is not colonial. It is structured to help the children acquire specific skills,” he explained. Aheto-Tsegah argued that the key things which are needed to give Ghanaian children grounded in the foundation of learning are available “so we give them the basis and that is why it is basic education.”

He said the country’s basic education helps children “appreciate numeracy, science and technology, social studies which has to do with the understanding of our own culture and then we teach them some basic learning and general behaviour.”

“So I don’t know what they mean by it is colonial because I do not know that we are teaching anything that is colonial,” he added.

Source: citifmonline.com

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daniel russell